Andy Richter secures employment

It's been a nip and tuck go of it for Andy Richter. A catch-as-catch-can nine years since he left Late Night with Conan O'Brien. After two tanked sitcoms and a few walk-ons in a scattering of T.V. spots and films, his career was beginning to seem like a strand of molten string cheese-- the farther it's pulled, the thinner it gets.

But hark-- what light on yonder window breaks? It is O'Brien once more, palae and ginery, to take on Richter as announcer for his new post at the Tonight Show! A shave and a night at the laundromat seem to be in order for the funniest man in Grand Rapids. Hollywood awaits.

The wrongfully canceled Andy Richter Controls the Universe .

The oddest part about Richter's receding career? Richter is an incredibly funny man. His natural timing, his gift for a gag, his physical appearance and his mopey demeanor give him an affable and incisively amusing presence. He plays the fool, the straight man, the one to be laughed at, and never with, even as you sympathize with his unwitting idiocies, and the fact that his short-lived sitcom Andy Richter Controls the Universe went belly up after just two seasons is even more inexplicable than the bastardly cancellation of Freaks and Geeks (Richter's cancellation can't even be blamed on bad promotion or shifting time slots).

It's good to see the enterprising young man land a steady job in this economy. Second banana seemed to rankle Richter on Late Night a decade ago-- here's hoping third banana will keep him satisfied now.